Annual Celebration of Wales' St. David's Day

Ed and Beth Roberts Brown, in Welsh National Dress, with members Danny and Shirley Gilmartin, enjoy the St. David's Day celebrations.

Ed and Beth Roberts Brown, in Welsh National Dress, with members Danny and Shirley Gilmartin, enjoy the St. David's Day celebrations. (Posted by DON SIT, Community Contributor)

Community Contributor DON SIT

On March 1st every year, the Welsh nation celebrates their Patron Saint, David, (Dewi Sant) with singing, Welsh foods and "Hiraeth", the untranslatable longing for your home country. The Welsh culture is Celtic and they have history and traditions going back for centuries. Hearty but frugal meals such as Cawl or Lobsgows, stews with either ham or lamb and carrots, potatoes and leeks, have been cooked on open hearths with peat or wood for fuel, for centuries. There is a renewed interest by Welsh restaurants to provide local, organic and free-range meat from livestock grazing on rain-washed green mountains and valleys. The rocky coastline of 600 miles is washed by the Atlantic's clear waves, and offers natural habitats for cockles, limpets, oysters, lobsters, mussels and winkles. I remember, as a child, raking the sands of Red Wharf Bay in Anglesey at low tide, listening for the shells of the cockles against the metal teeth of the rake. My Taid (grandfather), my sister and I would take the filled bucket home, rinse them and leave them to soak in fresh water overnight, before boiling them the next morning. We'd eat them with a little vinegar or lemon. Fishermen have been harvesting mussels in Conwy, North Wales since Roman times. Every small seaside port in Wales has fishing boats, which sail out for their daily catch. Since pre-Roman times, Anglesey, an island off the north west of Wales, was called "Mam Cymru", the Mother of Wales, and the "breadbasket of Wales", as it produced so much wheat and flour. Today, there remain working mills which produce award-winning flour. There are over a dozen Welsh vineyards, Welsh whisky from Penderyn, and many a Welsh cheese, some of which are available here in the USA.Appearing of many Welsh menus are local dishes of sweet, tender lamb; Anglesey lobster and mussels; Menai oysters; Halen Môn sea salt; local wood pigeon; laverbread made from edible seaweed; and cheeses such as Welsh Dragon Cheddar. Many of these recipes have been handed down from mother to daughter since the time of Hwyl Dda (Howell the Good), a medieval Welsh prince, whose writings gave us an idea of foodstuffs available before the Norman conquest of 1066. Giraldus Cambrensis noted in 1188 that " almost all the (Welsh) population lives on its flocks and on oats, milk, cheese and butter." A Celtic family's wealth was measured by its cattle, with butter and cheese being made at the Hafod, a small, summer hill-farm. They developed an early passion for roasted or toasted cheese, the early forerunner of Welsh Rarebit. By Tudor times it had become a national dish. Surprisingly perhaps, the only two cultivated vegetables were cabbages and leeks. Leeks became the national vegetable, even worn on lapels symbolically by some on St. David's Day. The Welsh do enjoy their leeks, often serving them with bacon, onions and potatoes.Traditional afternoon teas, or cream teas, appear in hotels, tourist cafes and homes, serving, along with cups of hot tea in china cups: Pice ar y Maen, bakestone Welsh cakes; Bara Brith, a speckled fruit bread sliced and served with butter; Teisen Sir Fôn, Anglesey cake; Teisen Fêl, honey cakes; and Miogod Sir Benfro, Pembrokeshire Buns. The Welsh Society of Western New England is based in Glastonbury, CT, the home of the current President, Susan Davies Sit who is a native of Wales. Once a month a group of members and guests meet to research their Welsh family history and genealogy; another group is learning the ancient, but living, Welsh language; and four times a year there are luncheons celebrating Welsh roots with speakers on subjects such as Dylan Thomas' poetry, The Welsh Language, the Music of Wales and more.This year, on Saturday, March 4, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Welsh Society celebrates St. David's Day with a luncheon at the Nutmeg Restaurant in East Windsor, CT followed by a video message from the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, followed by Welsh music, and a table of logo clothing, mugs and photo notecards for sale and a presentation on Welsh Foods and the surge of imports from Wales to the USA, presented by Lletyd Barrett, owner and manager of the SUNKEN HUNDRED (Cantre'r Gwaelod) restaurant in Brooklyn, NY. The luncheon will close with a singing of the Welsh National Anthem. Tickets are $31 for guests. Info from WelshWNE@gmail.com.

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